The invention presents a chain scraper conveyor, especially for underground mining and tunnel construction, in which the material which is to be transported is moved via channel belts which are connected by dog bone shaped toggles at their ends in a swivelling manner by carriers of a chain conveyor, whereby the individual channel belt consists of side profiles which have overlapping, V-shaped guide recesses and a bottom plate which constitutes the conveyor floor which is offset with regard to its thickness on the channel belt ends by alternately forming projecting overlap tongues.
Chain scraper conveyors are used for transporting bulk materials. They are especially used in underground mining operations and tunnel construction where they are used for transporting coal as well as coal mining mix or pure mountain material. However, these conveyors, which are mostly used in the area of mining, do not only transport away the mined minerals, but they also serve as a base from which the mining equipment, which is located on or near them, is operated. They are also used as springers for self-advancing support. Depending on the number of chains, we distinguish single-chain, double-center chain, double-external chain and triple scraping chain conveyors. Its 2 to 300 meters of transport belt consist of individual channel belts which are connected by dog bone shaped toggles at their ends in a swivelling manner. They are able to perform angle movements in the horizontal as well as in the vertical plane. In order to avoid the formation of gaps between the bottom plates at the channel joints through which the fine material of the carrying run can fall into the sub run of the chain scraper conveyor, the bottom plates are alternately equipped with overlap tongues. This is a known and customary solution for this problem. These overlap tongues are rectangular to the longitudinal axle of the channel belt, i.e. parallel to the abutting surfaces (DE-OS 39 03 347 and DE-PS 31 50 459). Another possibility is that they are correspondingly flat curve-shaped and wavy on both channel belt ends along their limitation (DE-OS 40 37 659). Apart from the overlaps with two ground projections, which are offset over the center of the channel, or three interacting coupling claws (hinge principle), which, however, are only concentrated in the area of the discharge width and completely neglect the area of the side profiles and furthermore only prevent the carriers partially from hitting against the overlapping abutting surfaces of the bottom plates with their lower edges and do not fall into the forming indentations when there is overflow in the joint areas, which produces disturbing noise and a weakening of power, the overlap tongues introduced in DE-OS 40 23 873 have the disadvantage that such a model cannot be applied across the entire width of the channel and therefore does not integrate the side profiles into the overall structure. The carrier always runs straight in the direction of two points so that there is no smooth incoming and discharge motion. Furthermore, uneven projections and juts of the joint faces of the overlap tongues result from vertical deflection with maximum effect on the center of the channel so that apart from the high starting jolts caused by the carriers which move erratically and noisily with pitch movements, there is a tendency for higher wear. Apart from the models in accordance with DE-OS 40 37 659.1 further models are known in which the profiles are symmetrical (DE-OS 33 24 108, DE-OS 36 13 551, DE-PS 9 20 355, DE-OS 33 01 435). These known channel profiles in general are symmetrical only around the lateral center axle.
The invention was charged with the task of designing an efficient chain scraper conveyor with low noise level and especially smooth input and discharge characteristics for the carriers, as well as a safe operation of the carriers and long idle times.